Colfax and Dead Part 3 Chapter 3
A bus helped me
get quickly from one side of town to the other. Normally after taking a job I
would rest, cash the check and make sure it cleared. Sometimes do a little
background research on the person hiring me to ensure I wasn’t being
thrown under a bus. This job was different, I could help Karen and while I knew
it wouldn’t buy me her love, I’m sure it would ease the tension between us.
Perhaps it will help me forgive myself.
Hurrying across
town I watched the nightlife along Colfax. The other six people on the bus were
probably like myself, living and possibly dying on this street. I got off the
bus near a popular music venue, The Bluebird. Signs of Danger had played there
a couple of weeks ago. There were some other acts preforming tonight, I lined
up at the ticket window to purchase a ticket. After a minute of waiting I was
at the window and they asked for some money, I reached for my wallet and felt
one of the guns I was carrying. I feigned forgetting my wallet and backed out
of the line.
I started
heading around the block to find a good place to stash both of my handguns and
my boot knife. There on the corner plying her body was a young lady in her
twenties dressed warmly but scantily for the weather. The jeans only had a few
holes in them that looked more due to fashion than wear, her jacket had seen
better days and was being worn more as a cloak than a jacket. At least she wasn’t wearing
heels in this cold, her shiny black combat boots poked out enough from her
pants that I could see the buckles and straps. I continued heading towards an
alley when I stopped and had to turn around. Her boots looked brand new.
Hopefully she could be another source of info as I resumed my walk towards the
alley parking lot.
Once in the back parking lot I found a dumpster and after
looking around in it stashed my holster and it’s gun under some trash.
Then looking around to ensure no one was watching I pulled my boot-knife and
cut a small hole in my abdomen. There I pulled out some gauze I stuffed in
there and my hidden snub-nose revolver. I stashed the revolver in a different
dumpster and then walked back towards the lady on the street corner.
Taking great
care to exit the parking lot on the opposite side of the lady I walked until I
got to the sidewalk. I pulled out a little business card I had made up a while
ago with my cell number on it. Then I walked towards the venue, paused and
turned around to walk towards the lady. Once I was twenty feet away she looked
at me and smiled. At ten feet she spoke, “Hey, darling, you
looking for some fun?” I smiled at her and nodded and got close enough to her I
could speak quietly and not be overheard.
“Look, I need information.” I asked her politely and held up my
business card.
“I can only help with one thing hun, you want to party or talk?”
she asked while tilting her head to look around my left side towards the venue.
“Your clothes and manner say party but your boots say vice. I’m
looking for a missing person, he may be someone who partied.” I replied and
thrust my card towards her. She hesitantly reached for the card and snagged it.
I didn’t want her to waste a whole night so I loudly complained, “What! Twenty
is all I have, you’re not in Littleton, lady. Twenty is all you get on Colfax.”
I saw her smile a little before she threw back on her mask.
“Twenty is what I charge normal fella’s, You get the ugly tax!”
She replied then she turned away from me and walked away from me. I tried to
look dejected and sighed as I turned back towards the Bluebird to see if I could
talk with some people in there. I didn’t recognize the bands who were playing
tonight. At the window I pulled out a twenty and handed it towards the guy
behind the glass but he gave me a weird look. He said something but the people
and noise around me drowned it out. He then pointed upwards at a sign on the
window, “SOLD OUT!”. I pocketed my money and backed away from the window. Then
started walking down Colfax towards Holly street.
I stopped after
two blocks and remembered I couldn’t go back there. I had
been sleeping out on farms but sleeping on the ground made it difficult to wake
up, sometimes days would pass by before I woke. Since I was close to Tony’s
apartment I walked up Madison St towards the building he lived in. There was
only a single entrance to the building in the front. Next to the double doors
was a call box with unit numbers next to the buttons. I pressed the one for
Tony’s place to see if I could hear it ring. After a minute of nothing and not
wanting to chance calling another unit I wandered around and down Cook street
to scout it out a little. The cameras on the side of the building and well lit
parking area did not help any.
I considered
hiding and trying to tailgate someone entering the building. This late at night
the odds were the police would be called for suspicious activity or I would get
shot by someone thinking I was there to rob them. Shot by someone, oh shit, it was then I
remembered I left my guns behind the fucking music venue. Avoiding a curse I
jogged back towards Colfax in order to retrieve my weapons from the
dumpsters. I knew then it was going to
be a long night.
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